


The Something We Couldn't Have Had

by wellthisisfunguys



Category: Welcome to Night Vale
Genre: Bisexual Male Character, Boy Scouts, Camping, Canon-Typical Violence, Coffee Shops, Earl is a Mess, Fluff and Angst, French Kissing, Gay Character, Hockey, I'm trying to make it sympathetic but he is also a bit of a prick, It won't go any further than that cause I'm aroace and Uncomfortable, Kissing, LGBTQ Character, M/M, Night Vale, Night Vale Scouts, Obsessive Behavior, POV Third Person, Possibly Unsympathetic Cecil?, Pre-Canon, Relationship(s), Rollerblades & Rollerskates, Secret Relationship, Self-Esteem Issues, Self-Hatred, Stalking, Swearing, Teenagers, Typical Night Vale Weirdness, Unhealthy Coping Mechanisms, Unhealthy Relationships, Young Cecil Palmer, Young Earl Harlan, briefly near the end - it gets shut down fast
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-31
Updated: 2020-07-31
Packaged: 2021-03-05 22:14:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,443
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25632658
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wellthisisfunguys/pseuds/wellthisisfunguys
Summary: Earl Harlan is 16, a model boy scout with no real friends. Cecil has just joined the scout troop, and Earl is Very Gay from the beginning. However, teenage relationships often aren't built to last, and with the strangeness of Night Vale, things can get rather intense and confusing rather fast.In other words, an exploration of a relationship that was never meant to be, and a lot of miscommunication.
Relationships: Earl Harlan/Cecil Palmer
Comments: 3
Kudos: 5





	The Something We Couldn't Have Had

**Author's Note:**

> I'll be putting trigger warnings for each chapter here when required - please let me know if I've done it wrong and I'll fix it. This may mean there are mild spoilers here, but it should be pretty vague.  
> Today's specials are:  
> Self-hatred (mild)  
> Bullying (references and one comment)  
> Passing mention of injury  
> Swearing (this will likely be in all chapters)

Earl walked into the Scout Hut to a buzz of conversation. He looked around for a moment, confused, but brushed it off and walked over to the nearest radiator. The walk to the hut had been uncomfortably cold due to the freezing December winds, and the best way to stop the shivering would undoubtedly be the blissful warmth of the heating system, and it was a perfect vantage point for overhearing what all the whispering was about.

  
“Apparently he’s got tattoos,” came a hushed voice from a group of Scouts.

  
“No way! How do you even get those? He’s not eighteen, is he?” a slightly more concerned voice exclaimed in a whisper.

  
“No, no, he’s only 15, it can’t have been legal,” replied the first voice, and Earl smiled to himself – the new Scout was joining today. He knew the guy had a reputation, but the whispering was probably a little much – it’s just some troublemaker that the Scoutmaster was asked to bring into line. The tattoos were probably either due to a run-in with some entity, or he was dedicated enough to stab himself a lot of times. Either way, he was an idiot. Not that Earl had never had a body-changing experience – he tried to look at something he shouldn’t have, and now his eyes were black and red. However, he got suspicion and mockery rather than mild reverence. What made this guy so special?

  
“-kissed half the girls in the year,” hissed another voice as Earl tuned back in to the conversation.

  
“Wow, he better get used to lowering his standards cause the only person here who’ll let him kiss them is Earl,” laughed the first voice, as Earl rapidly averted his eyes and tried to avoid notice. The disadvantage of being the only gay guy in a room full of teenage boys. He shook it off – unlike this new guy, he had standards. Speaking of, where was he? The meeting was supposed to start five minutes ago, and he was nowhere to be seen. The Scoutmaster would have his head if he was any later, even if it was his first day.

  
Five minutes later, Earl had started practising his knots to pass the time. The whispers were still dancing around the room, but a lot of them had given way to typical conversation – there’s only so much to gossip about someone you’ve never seen. As he was feeding the slack through the thirty-third loop of the Unfathomable Knot, the signature knot of the Night Vale Scouting Troop, the door to the hut creaked open. A pale boy with a carefully crafted swoosh of almost white hair strode in. He was, as the rumours suggested, covered in snaking tattoos from the wrists upward as well as several ear piercings and oh shit Earl was really in for it wasn’t he. This boy was, much to his frustration, devastatingly pretty.

  
His legs had just started to go weak when the Scoutmaster clapped his hands to call for attention, snapping Earl out of his shock and causing all the Scouts to simultaneously turn towards their leader.  
“Ok, everyone in their groups, ready for the opening ceremony,” barked the Scoutmaster, and Earl walked over to his corner mostly on autopilot. “Cecil, you go to Screaming Vultures group for now, with Harry- Harry, wave so we can see you.” This caused Earl to sigh in relief. At least he was in a different group. And his name was Cecil.

  
“At ease, everyone. Now that our newest member has decided to grace us with his presence, we’ll get started. Charlie, you can do the flag today,” announced the Scoutmaster. The opening ceremony passed in a blur as per usual, the flag was raised, and Charlie was only missing a finger by the end – a success by all counts. The Scoutmaster set them off with a game of Capture the Vast and asked the new boy – Cecil – for a word, probably about his time of arrival. By the end of the game, Cecil and the Scoutmaster were walking out with Cecil looking somewhat apologetic and the Scoutmaster mostly looking tired. Everyone was called to return to their groups so the main activity could be explained, and as they walked back, Cecil caught Earl’s eyes. The effect was evident, as Earl almost tripped, flushed red and returned his eyes to their normal downcast setting just after seeing a strange smile on Cecil’s face. He just hoped no-one noticed his near-death experience or heard his heart pounding as loudly as it was in his head.

  
Earl zoned out for most of the rest of the evening, thinking back on the… Situation. He needed to get a hold on himself – he couldn’t just keep nearly passing out whenever Cecil so much as looked at him, and what was that smile about anyway? It was very peculiar, but he needed to stop thinking about it before he started blushing again. It was probably only because of his eyes anyway. He looked up and shit- Cecil was looking at him shit shit shit – Cecil averted his eyes, as did Earl. Shit. Well now he was a mess again.

  
After he calmed down, he tried looking at Cecil again. Maybe if he desensitised himself to the prettiness, he’d get over it. His eyes seemed to be purple, which was strange, and they were… looking right at him. Fuck! He quickly looked down, but he knew Cecil had seen. Now he probably thought Earl was weird and creepy and ugh. Why couldn’t he just be normal? Why couldn’t Cecil be anything other than perfect?

  
By the end of the evening, Earl was about ready to die. He’d been caught staring at least four times and possibly more than that. He’d also caught Cecil in return, though only once or twice. He picked up his coat, walked out the door and made his way to the side of the hut as soon as the Scoutmaster declared the end of the meeting, and sat down against the brick wall. He had royally fucked up today. Really, as one of the senior scouts, he should have introduced himself to Cecil and helped him settle in – not that Cecil needed any help with that. He had been surrounded by a group of Scouts all evening and was clearly in his element. But even outside of his responsibilities as a Scout, he could have at least spoken to the most incredible person he’d ever seen. A normal thing to do would be to try and get closer to them, but Earl had probably just weirded him out and pushed him away. Why did he have to be so useless? It shouldn’t be this hard, it shouldn’t be a big thing, and yet Earl was obviously so incompetent he couldn’t even manage a conversation.

  
Something tapped him on the head. He looked up, face already starting to twist into a snarl when he saw Cecil’s face looking down at him. He instantly switched from being ready to lash out verbally to being ready to stammer uncontrollably, but before he could say anything Cecil simply said:

  
“Hi,” and smiled a strangely fond smile as Earl’s face began to burn.

  
“Hi-” Earl choked out, voice cracking. He coughed, stood up, and tried again, “Hi.”

  
“Why are you sat out here? Is your ride not here yet?” asked Cecil, and Earl shook his head.

  
“No, I’m just uh, um, trying to, trying to get used to the, cold? Before I walk- before I walk home,” Earl stuttered jerkily, trying to drag a makeshift excuse out of his brain. It was a terrible excuse, but he’d said it now, so he’d just have to manage. Cecil smiled in amusement, which meant he was basically toying with Earl, just like all the others, why did he even bother to think Cecil might be different? Earl shook his head and choked out a bitter laugh.

  
“I’ll see you next week,” he forced out, and pulled his coat over his shoulders as he turned and walked away.

  
“See you!” Cecil called after him, with surprising cheerfulness. Earl paused, debated looking back, but decided against it. He was just another pretty asshole to have to deal with, who was probably straight even if he wasn’t a dick. He wasn’t worth Earl’s time, and it would only be worse if he went and got attached to someone he could never have, and who would never want him. He had also just obviously lied to his face, so that wouldn’t be helping either. Probably for the best. Walking home, Earl thought about a boy and messing up conversations.

**Author's Note:**

> Right.  
> So that was the first chapter of my first fanfic. Damn.  
> Both kudos and comments are appreciated, I will almost definitely need someone to actually make me finish writing this as I am well known for abandoning projects after a few days, but I do have the whole story planned out so it's just a matter of making the words go good.  
> ANYway, hope you enjoyed it, wish me luck, see you next chapter (hopefully :) )


End file.
